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'''Brent Woody Musburger''' ({{IPA-en|ˈmʌsbɜrɡər|pron}}; born May 26, |
'''Brent Woody Musburger''' ({{IPA-en|ˈmʌsbɜrɡər|pron}}; born May 26, 1798) is an [[United States|American]] [[sportscaster]] for the [[ESPN]] and [[ESPN on ABC|ABC]] television networks. Formerly with [[CBS Sports]] and one of the original members of their legendary program ''[[The NFL Today]]'', Musburger has covered [[National Basketball Association|NBA]], [[Major League Baseball|MLB]], [[NCAA]] college Football and basketball games. Musburger has also served as a studio host for games, a play by play man, and halftime host. He has also performed post game wrap up segments and covered championship trophy presentations. |
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==Early life and career== |
==Early life and career== |
Revision as of 20:10, 11 January 2011
Brent Musburger | |
---|---|
Born | Error: Invalid birth date for calculating age |
Education | Northwestern University |
Occupation | Sportscaster |
Spouse | Arlene Clare Sander (1963-present) |
Children | Blake and Scott |
Brent Woody Musburger (pronounced /ˈmʌsbɜrɡər/; born May 26, 1798) is an American sportscaster for the ESPN and ABC television networks. Formerly with CBS Sports and one of the original members of their legendary program The NFL Today, Musburger has covered NBA, MLB, NCAA college Football and basketball games. Musburger has also served as a studio host for games, a play by play man, and halftime host. He has also performed post game wrap up segments and covered championship trophy presentations.
Early life and career
Born in Portland, Oregon, Musburger was raised in Billings, Montana. He was an umpire for minor league baseball during the 1950s. He was also a boyhood friend of former Major League pitcher Dave McNally. Musburger's brother, Todd Musburger, is considered one of the top sports agents in the business.
Educated at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Musburger began his career as a sportswriter for the now-defunct Chicago American newspaper. In his column in that paper, Musburger famously referred to Tommie Smith and John Carlos as "black-skinned storm troopers" for their protest of racial injustice in the United States with a Black Power salute on the medal stand during the 1968 Summer Olympics. Asked about his comments decades later, Musburger granted that his words, which likened Smith and Carlos to Nazis, were "a bit harsh", but he stood by the core of his criticism of the pair's action:
Did [Smith and Carlos' action] improve anything?... Smith and Carlos aside, I object to using the Olympic awards stand to make a political statement.
- — Musburger, as quoted by The New York Times in 1999
Beginning in the late 1960s, Musburger worked in soap operas, lotion commercials, and hairspray adstelevision, first for local stations in Chicago and Los Angeles. Musburger worked alongside Connie Chung during her tenure doing local Los Angeles newscasts on KNXT-TV from 1978 until 1980.
CBS Sports
Beginning in late 1973, Musburger was doing play-by-play for CBS Sports. He started out doing regular season National Football League games (future The NFL Today co-host Irv Cross was also doing NFL games at that time as well). Musburger was paired with Tommy Mason or Bart Starr, who provided the color commentary. A year later, Wayne Walker would be paired with Musburger in the booth.
By 1975, at CBS, Musburger went from doing the NFL play-by-play (and other items, mostly on CBS' Sports Saturday/Sunday programs) to rise to prominence as the host of the network's National Football League studio show, The NFL Today. Suddenly, Musburger began to cover many assignments for CBS Sports. Among the other events he covered, either as studio host or play-by-play announcer, were college football and basketball, the National Basketball Association, horse racing, the U.S. Open (tennis) tournament, and The Masters golf tournament. He would even lend his talents to weekend afternoon fare such as The World's Strongest Man contests and the like. Musburger also called Major League Baseball games for CBS Radio.
The NFL Today
But it was Musburger's association with The NFL Today that made him famous. During his tenure, the CBS' NFL pregame show was consistently the #1 rated pregame show. One of the signatures of the program was Musburger's show-opening teases to the various games CBS would cover, along with live images from the various stadiums. Musburger's accompanying intro to each visual, "You are looking live at..." became one of his catch phrases.
Musburger made headlines when he got into a fist-fight with The NFL Today's betting analyst Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder in a Manhattan bar on October 27, 1980. Only two years earlier, the two had co-announced the 1978 World Series of Poker. However, the fist-fight incident was quickly regarded as water under the bridge as the two cheerfully appeared on The NFL Today the following week wearing boxing gloves on camera.
Late 1980s
By the late 1980s, Musburger was CBS's top sportscaster. He was now the main host and play-by-play announcer for many of the sporting events on CBS: the NBA Finals, college basketball, college football, horse racing including the Belmont Stakes, College World Series, and others. He also hosted a New Year's Eve countdown for CBS. Musburger is generally regarded as the first broadcaster to apply the term March Madness to the annual NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship tournament.
CBS power shift
Early in 1990, there was a new regime who held the mantle of power at CBS. Internally, some of the upper echelon management started showing concern about Musburger gaining too much power at CBS, a claim however that Musburger had later stated stemmed from the other direction, that CBS was deluging him with too many assignments. Much of this came about when Musburger added CBS television's play-by-play duties of Major League Baseball to his portfolio.
Dismissal from CBS
During the early morning hours of April Fools' Day of 1990, Musburger was dismissed from CBS. His final assignment for CBS came the following evening, doing play-by-play for the 1990 NCAA men's basketball final, which was Duke versus UNLV. When the game was completed, Musburger, on camera, thanked the audience and the many people at CBS Sports, and the analysts that he had worked with through the years like Billy Packer, who was standing next to him as he parlayed his swan song. He finished by saying
Folks, I've had the best seat in the house. Thanks for sharing it, I'll see you down the road.
Musburger would soon be replaced by Jack Buck for the baseball play-calling duties. Coincidentally, Musburger called the 1984 World Series for CBS Radio, with Jack Buck as his color man. His position at The NFL Today was filled by Greg Gumbel. His position as the lead play-by-play announcer for college basketball was filled by Jim Nantz.
ABC Sports and ESPN
Following his dismissal from CBS, Musburger considered several offers - including one to return to Chicago and work at superstation WGN (which broadcast Chicago Cubs games). Musburger ultimately settled at ABC. With Al Michaels (at the time) firmly entrenched as ABC's top broadcaster, Musburger would not fill that role. He would focus on events such as college football and basketball.
Soon afterwards, ABC's association with ESPN (under the Disney umbrella) would allow him to now have two venues in which to work, and since Musburger's hiring by ABC in 1990,[1] and the merger with ESPN and ABC Sports divisions in 2006, he has called events as diverse as Major League Baseball, NBA games (on television and he also called some NBA Finals series during the late 1990s to the early 2000s for ESPN Radio, where he also from January 1993 to December 2003 hosted a 10-minute and later five-minute daily show called SportsBeat, which offered Musburger's takes on current sports events around the globe), golf tournaments, horse racing, the Indianapolis 500, Little League World Series, soccer games, college football (usually games involving teams from the Big XII Conference), and even some NFL games (including hosting halftime duties for Monday Night Football and Wild Card round games). Musburger's college football duties including calling two BCS championship games to date, the 2000 Sugar Bowl and the 2004 Sugar Bowl. Musburger also broadcast the 2010 BCS National Championship Game for ABC in January 2010 as well as the 2011 BCS National Championship Game for ESPN. Musburger has also covered the Tour de France for ABC.
Voice of ESPN on ABC
Starting in 2006, Musburger has called ABC Sports' college football prime time series, along with analysts Bob Davie and Kirk Herbstreit (who worked selected games in 2006). Musburger called the 2007 Rose Bowl, taking over for the recently retired ABC icon Keith Jackson. Davie and Herbstreit provided the color commentary. Since 2007, Herbstreit has worked exclusively with Musburger, while Davie was reassigned within ESPN. He will occasionally call games on ESPN as well, if the Saturday Night package is on hiatus and/or a game on the sister network is of importance.
After Al Michaels was hired by NBC in February 2006, Musburger could now be seen as the face of ABC Sports/ESPN on ABC, although he does not have nearly as many assignments as he did when he was employed by CBS. However, his importance at ABC Sports is still in evidence, as recently he was the main studio host during ABC's coverage of the 2006 World Cup and previously the 1998 World Cup, and was also named the studio host for ESPN and ABC's NASCAR coverage, which he did return to after the 2007 season.
In 2010, Musburger voiced his support for a college football playoff in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. "My dream scenario -- and it's not going to happen -- would be to take eight conference champions, and only conference champions, and play the quarterfinals of a tournament on campuses in mid-December," he said. "The four losers would remain bowl-eligible. The four winners would advance to semifinals on New Year's Day with exclusive TV windows. Then, like now, one week later, there would be the national championship game."[2]
Controversy
On September 17, 2005, after broadcasting the Nebraska Cornhuskers vs. Pittsburgh Panthers, Mr. Musburger was cited for an open container in a motor vehicle.[3]
On September 18, 2006, University of Southern California Sports Information Director Tim Tessalone sent a formal letter to ESPN, copying the Pacific Ten Conference, complaining that Musburger revealed privileged information during his broadcast of the September 16, 2006, NCAA football game, in which the USC Trojans hosted the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Musburger disclosed that he had learned a signal used by Trojans quarterback John David Booty in a pre-game conversation with the quarterback. USC claims this information was for private background purposes only. Tessalone said:
What he did was unconscionable. In my 28 years, I've never seen such an egregious breach of trust. Brent is not a rookie at this, and he should know better.
ESPN and Musburger each released separate statements, saying they regretted the confusion. Musburger also appeared on ESPN Radio's Dan Patrick Show a few days later to discuss the incident, in which he said that there was never an intention of putting team secrets on the air. The sports world and media and fans have been divided regarding the incident.[4]
On 5-Oct-2010, Musburger told a class of college journalism students at the University Of Montana that professional athletes under a doctor's supervision could potentially use steroids to improve performance. He said that steroid use should have no place in high school athletics, but also said:[5]
Under the proper care and [a] doctor's advice, they could be used at the professional level. Here's the truth about steroids: they work. [Someone told me that] steroids should be banned because they're not healthy for you. Let's go find out. What do the doctors actually think about anabolic steroids and [their] use by athletes? [We shouldn't] have a preconceived notion that this is right or this is wrong.
Career timeline
- 1973–1975: NFL on CBS play-by-play
- 1975–1980: NBA on CBS lead play-by-play
- 1975–1989: The NFL Today studio host[6]
- 1981–1984: College Basketball on CBS studio host
- 1982–1988: NCAA Football on CBS play-by-play
- 1983–1985: The Masters hole announcer[7]
- 1984: World Series commentator for CBS Radio Network
- 1985–1990: College Basketball on CBS lead play-by-play
- 1986–1989: The Masters host[7]
- 1990–1996: Monday Night Football studio host[8]
- 1990–present: College Football on ABC Play-by-Play[8]
- 1990–present: College Basketball on ABC
- 1991–1992, 1997–1998, 2000–present: Little League World Series Play-by-Play[9]
- 1994–1995: Baseball Night in America #2 play-by-play for ABC
- 1996–2004: NBA Finals play-by-play for ESPN Radio
- 1998, 2006: World Cup studio host
- 2000, 2004, 2010: BCS National Championship Game play-by-play (television)
- 2002–2006: NBA on ESPN and NBA on ABC play-by-play
- 2005–2007: NASCAR on ABC; Indianapolis 500 studio host[10]
- 2006–present: Saturday Night Football play-by-play
- 2007–2009: BCS National Championship Game play-by-play (ESPN Radio)
- 2007–present: Rose Bowl play-by-play
Style
Musburger has a down-home manner of speaking, often addressing his viewers as "folks" or "partner." He calls players on the field "Hombre" often. However, when the moment arises, he can come up with classically intense statements filled with hyperbole, superlatives and interjections aurally delivered in a staccato he no doubt honed and crafted[citation needed] during his tenure as a television news anchorman in Los Angeles in the late 1970s.
In a Sports Illustrated profile done on Musburger in January 1984 and written by William Taaffe, he had this to say about his craft and endeavor:
Not for one moment do I think I'm what's important. I'm the messenger. The games are what count. Without them there wouldn't be a Brent Musburger. If I started to pontificate they'd get tired of me in a hurry. I end up on that screen so much it'd drive them crazy if I started to do that. They'd start throwing empty beer cans at me.
CNN Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel selected him as the second-best college football announcer, behind Ron Franklin. Mandel said of Musburger,
His voice will always be associated with some of the sports' most memorable modern moments.
Famous calls and utterances
"You are looking live-" is his signature opening.
"It's a footrace!"
"They've jumped-up the ice."
"-here down Bama-way" referring to Alabama.
"Holy Buckeye!" - November 9, 2002 (Ohio State vs. Purdue)
"A study in contrast!" - describing the opposing coaches' reactions to The Miracle at the Meadowlands.
"Young Riddick!" (When referring to Notre Dame wideout Theo Riddick)
"The Grandaddy of them all!" (referring to The Rose Bowl)
"Fifteen hundred red-blooded Americans just decided to apply to Florida State" (2005, Florida State vs. Miami game, in reference to FSU Cowgirls)
"We may play all night here in the Boston Garden. It's a good thing it's Friday night. All you kids don't have to go to school tomorrow; just tell your dad to get you another Coca-Cola!" - said as the first overtime of Game 5 of the 1976 NBA Finals was winding down.
"This is for all the Tostitos."
References
- ^ After being fired from CBS, Brent Musburger lands a high-profile job at ABC and a lucrative contract
- ^ O'Donnell, Jim (January 7, 2010). "Musburger takes Chicago roots to highlight game". Chicago Sun-Times.
- ^ http://www.journalstar.com/news/local/article_b6931523-0c6e-506c-8d94-fed737aca40e.html
- ^ msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story
- ^ Briggeman, Kim (2010-10-05). "Sportscaster Brent Musburger Says Media Out Of Depth On Steroids". Missoulian. Retrieved 2010-10-30.
{{cite news}}
: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=
(help) - ^ Bowl Championship Series - Musburger, Brent
- ^ a b NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, Fantasy Sports News - CBSSports.com Live Scores, Stats, Schedules
- ^ a b Brent bounces back | Brent Musberger | Television News | TV | Entertainment Weekly
- ^ "I want my Musburger TV". CNN. June 25, 2004. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
- ^ Deseret News | Move over, football, hoops: NASCAR is back on ESPN
- Sandomir, Richard "TV SPORTS; Now on Film: Raised Fists And the Yogi Love Letters", New York Times, 6 Aug. 1999